A popular officer for his attention to the lower ranks, he supported the Bolsheviks after the Russian Revolution, and was elected to one of the ship committees.

As an experienced officer he was tasked with several staff positions after the war, and took a leading role in re-establishing the fleet's strength in the early Soviet period.

After a month recovering in hospital, he was well enough to resume command, and helped to direct the naval defences during the siege of Leningrad, and subsequent offensive operations as the Germans were pushed back.

Receiving several awards for his service, Rall returned to academic life after the war, and wrote a number of military and historical texts before his death in 1948.

"[2] He supported the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War, and as commander of the Podvizhniy was elected one of the first chairmen of the ship committees in Revel.

[1][3] Nikolai Kuznetsov, later admiral of the fleet of the Soviet Union, recalled that "Yuri Fedorovich Rall, an old experienced sailor, taught me a lot.

He taught me how best to follow the movement of my ship along coastal lights, how to moor in a pressing wind, what to look for in very narrow places or during storms ...

"[2] In 1930 Rall was appointed Deputy Head of the Navy's Training and Border Directorate, and from 1932 commanded the Black Sea Fleet's cruiser brigade.

[1] Rall then served as head of the Navy's Combat Training Directorate, and at the same time was deputy chairman of the Main statutory commission.

[2][4] During the German invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, Rall was appointed commander of the Eastern defensive position on 25 June and oversaw the installation of shore batteries on the islands of Bolshoy Tyuters and Lavensaari, and the laying of minefields in the Gulf of Finland.

[4] He was then tasked with taking part in the complicated operation to evacuate the ships of the Baltic Fleet from besieged Tallinn and bring them to Kronstadt.

[5] The advice was rejected by Marshal Kliment Voroshilov, commander of the Leningrad Front, who, concerned about the possibility of Latvian and Estonian crews, and even Soviet sailors, defecting to the enemy, ordered Rall and his superior Admiral Vladimir Tributs to take the middle route, despite it having been heavily mined by enemy forces.

[6] Rall spent a month recovering in hospital, and in September was appointed chief of staff of the Baltic Fleet, a post he held until January 1943.

[4] Rall formed an operational group of staff officers and developed a plan for the evacuation of the Hanko Naval Base.

[7] From 1945 Rall worked in the commissions for the division of the German fleet, and was head of the department of tactics of surface ships and anti-mine defence of the Naval Academy.